Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Ryan Nielsen on Defense Playing Hard and Tough
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Well, I mean, how do you fix it really?
- 0:02Speaker 2: Right now? You guys are in a tough stretch these
- 0:05Speaker 2: last four games.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Can you play hard and play together? That's the message.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Play hard every play and play together.
- 0:14Speaker 3: Do our job on every snap, play as hard as
- 0:16Speaker 3: we can possibly play.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Is there? Do you stick with what you're preaching and
- 0:22Speaker 1: practicing for?
- 0:23Speaker 4: Can you do you actually have to change something fundamentally?
- 0:27Speaker 3: No, the fund most technique will all still be the same.
- 0:30Speaker 3: We'll mix some stuff up, mix different calls, pressure when
- 0:34Speaker 3: we've been playing coverage, you.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Know, do some things like that. But ultimately we're gonna
- 0:39Speaker 1: we're gonna stay the course. Uh.
- 0:41Speaker 3: That's the biggest thing we have to because I think
- 0:43Speaker 3: when you start changing, then the players start going, well,
- 0:47Speaker 3: it didn't work in the first place, and they start
- 0:48Speaker 3: set second guessing. So we're gonna stay the course. We're
- 0:51Speaker 3: gonna play together, We're gonna play hard. When we turn
- 0:54Speaker 3: on the tape, the most important thing that happens, regardless
- 0:56Speaker 3: of the outcome of the game, is when we see
- 0:58Speaker 3: eleven guys do their job and play as hard as
- 1:01Speaker 3: they can possibly play from the snap to the whistle.
- 1:05Speaker 3: What do you lose in Roy getting traded away, and
- 1:09Speaker 3: what did the guys like Mason Smith and Jordan Jefferson,
- 1:12Speaker 3: some of those young guys potentially a game, a great opportunity,
- 1:16Speaker 3: more snaps, I mean, more opportunities to go make plays.
- 1:18Speaker 3: Those guys have done a good job. You'll see Jordan
- 1:21Speaker 3: again out there. I mean, he played pretty decent his
- 1:24Speaker 3: first you know, your first NFL game, motions are running high,
- 1:27Speaker 3: and you know it wasn't perfect by any mean, but
- 1:30Speaker 3: but he did play hard and he did some really
- 1:32Speaker 3: good things. And so we're encouraged the same thing with Mason.
- 1:34Speaker 3: You know, he'd been playing, you know, all year, and
- 1:37Speaker 3: but you know, we appreciate everything that Roy did. But
- 1:40Speaker 3: you know, next guy up mentality, and we've got.
- 1:42Speaker 1: A deep room there.
- 1:44Speaker 3: You know, we've we've kept a lot of guys, so
- 1:47Speaker 3: we feel like we're really good.
- 1:48Speaker 1: And at that position, you.
- 1:50Speaker 4: Prepare when and maybe it's not just this weekend thing,
- 1:52Speaker 4: but generally if it's you're facing the quarterback that you
- 1:55Speaker 4: haven't seen much yet at the NFL level, or do
- 1:58Speaker 4: you go back to what you said, make it about you.
- 2:01Speaker 1: It has to be about us. I mean that's where
- 2:02Speaker 1: we're at right now.
- 2:03Speaker 3: You know, it really doesn't matter the opponent, whoever, any
- 2:06Speaker 3: of the other thirty one team. This this week is
- 2:08Speaker 3: just gonna be about Jacksonville and our defense and how
- 2:11Speaker 3: we play like that's that's been all the message.
- 2:13Speaker 1: We've Obviously we do watch a little tape.
- 2:15Speaker 3: On them, and we know, you know, kind of their
- 2:17Speaker 3: their tendencies and who they are and things like that.
- 2:19Speaker 1: But look at the end of the day, you know.
- 2:21Speaker 3: We're out there interception drill yesterday, tackling circuit today, like
- 2:25Speaker 3: you know, fundamentals technique. You know, we're gonna play our
- 2:27Speaker 3: defense and we're gonna play hard and tough and fast.
- 2:32Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 2:32Speaker 3: No, every every week it's about us, Like that's the
- 2:34Speaker 3: most important thing. Worry about yourself then that's the only
- 2:37Speaker 3: thing that matters. And you know we talk about execution.
- 2:40Speaker 3: Execution is being a good teammate to do your job
- 2:42Speaker 3: so the guy left and right can do his job,
- 2:44Speaker 3: you know, And that's been our focus this week.
- 2:46Speaker 4: Anything that Andre talked about after the game show up
- 2:49Speaker 4: on tape.
- 2:50Speaker 3: When looking back on it, you know, there's there's some
- 2:52Speaker 3: plays that we just got to play hard, like that's you.
- 2:55Speaker 1: Know, that's the thing.
- 2:56Speaker 3: You know, you know, we've had a conversation, Andre and
- 3:00Speaker 3: where your thoughts are?
- 3:00Speaker 1: You know, where did that come from?
- 3:02Speaker 3: And you never want to hear that, like that's not
- 3:04Speaker 3: anything as a coach, you know, but you know we've
- 3:07Speaker 3: talked about it and I think, uh, we'll go out
- 3:09Speaker 3: there and we'll play hard, like that's that's the message.
- 3:12Speaker 3: You know, You're going to continue to hear that and
- 3:14Speaker 3: just play hard every snap, you know, so that never
- 3:16Speaker 3: happens again. Get it's a huge, great player. You know,
- 3:21Speaker 3: we don't want to lose any good players, you know,
- 3:23Speaker 3: any of our players getting him back. You know, he's
- 3:26Speaker 3: phenomenal talent, athlete, he's a great teammate. You know, we're
- 3:31Speaker 3: excited about getting him back into the fold. You'll see
- 3:33Speaker 3: some different combinations now that we have him back, and
- 3:36Speaker 3: kind of how we started the year.
- 3:37Speaker 1: So very excited. Killer on the defense last week, what's
- 3:42Speaker 1: been done?
- 3:42Speaker 3: Cleaned that up this week, staying, staying the course, staying fundamentals, technique,
- 3:46Speaker 3: you know some of those tech technique the penalties were
- 3:49Speaker 3: technique errors, you know, so we just got to stay
- 3:51Speaker 3: with that, you know, take our hands off of and
- 3:53Speaker 3: move our feet a little bit better. Twelve guys on
- 3:55Speaker 3: the field is unacceptable like that can never happen.
- 3:58Speaker 1: So that's on me. The punneties are on me, and
- 4:01Speaker 1: we're working on it this week. So you know, words,
- 4:04Speaker 1: it's hard when you're woning five. Not too many positives
- 4:07Speaker 1: come out.
- 4:07Speaker 3: But are there some small victories on your defense, whether
- 4:10Speaker 3: it's individual players, things coming together the way you want
- 4:13Speaker 3: to see it.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Sure that that's not jumping out.
- 4:15Speaker 3: You know in wins Love how we started last week,
- 4:17Speaker 3: you know, two three and ouskous we're playing fast, but
- 4:20Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, you know, some of the
- 4:22Speaker 3: things started showing up that you don't want to show up.
- 4:25Speaker 3: And you know that the third drive in the game,
- 4:27Speaker 3: you know, there's some plays that happen that you're you know,
- 4:30Speaker 3: if we we just would have been you know, in
- 4:32Speaker 3: the right place and executed our job and maybe a
- 4:35Speaker 3: little bit different outcome, you know. So that's where we're
- 4:37Speaker 3: just staying the course with the guys. And then you know,
- 4:39Speaker 3: throughout the season, you've seen games that we've had stretches
- 4:42Speaker 3: and you know, we've got off the field in six
- 4:45Speaker 3: straight drives in some games and things like.
- 4:46Speaker 1: That, and so that's what we're focusing on. Guys.
- 4:49Speaker 3: We can do this we've done this before. Now let's
- 4:51Speaker 3: just put a whole full football game together.
- 4:53Speaker 2: Right, And have you talked to your players a little
- 4:55Speaker 2: bit about kind of maintaining their role, not trying to
- 4:58Speaker 2: do too much. I think sometimes you pressed when obviously
- 5:00Speaker 2: things are not going the way you want to, and
- 5:02Speaker 2: kind of staying within that role in the end.
- 5:04Speaker 3: It's a great point because we have it's it was
- 5:07Speaker 3: the meeting on Tuesday. It's it's play hard and then
- 5:12Speaker 3: play together. And the play together part is the execution.
- 5:16Speaker 3: And and just like you say, do your job, and
- 5:19Speaker 3: that's execution to us, doing your job. Executing your job
- 5:23Speaker 3: is being a great teammate. So if I'm supposed to
- 5:26Speaker 3: be in the B gap, the guy in the in
- 5:28Speaker 3: the C gap and the A gap can do his job.
- 5:30Speaker 3: And that's that's being a great team and not jumping
- 5:32Speaker 3: out of my gap to do his job.
- 5:34Speaker 1: And I'm going to stay in my gap to do
- 5:35Speaker 1: my job.
- 5:35Speaker 3: Same thing and coverage and in all aspects of the game.
- 5:38Speaker 3: And and so that's our focus on playing hard and
- 5:41Speaker 3: playing together, and part of that is the execution part
- 5:43Speaker 3: and just doing our job.
- 5:45Speaker 1: Just staying the course.
- 5:46Speaker 4: And from the outside media will look at the record
- 5:49Speaker 4: and things like that. As a coach, generally weeks week
- 5:52Speaker 4: in the NFL, do you almost set that aside?
- 5:54Speaker 1: And there's a process absolutely.
- 5:56Speaker 3: You know, every Monday is every Monday, Every Tuesday is
- 5:59Speaker 3: every Tuesday, every one day, because when you start treating
- 6:02Speaker 3: some games and some days that are greater than other,
- 6:04Speaker 3: then you start riding the roller coaster. And so you
- 6:06Speaker 3: got to treat it all the same and one day
- 6:08Speaker 3: at a time, one game at a time. A long
- 6:11Speaker 3: time ago when first you know, you have these seventeen
- 6:13Speaker 3: games and each game is a unit, and all we
- 6:15Speaker 3: have to do is just start stacking.
- 6:16Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who the opponent is.
- 6:18Speaker 3: One unit at a time and just stack the units
- 6:21Speaker 3: and next thing you know, we can turn this thing around.
- 6:22Speaker 1: But we got to start with one. And that's this week.
- 6:26Speaker 1: Second year and you've got back to back games here
- 6:28Speaker 1: in London.
- 6:28Speaker 2: What have you learned from last year to help prepare
- 6:30Speaker 2: for this week?
- 6:31Speaker 1: Yeah, it's first of all, this is awesome. We love it.
- 6:34Speaker 3: I mean, this is this set up here and being
- 6:37Speaker 3: at the grove and uh, it's fantastic. And so you fly,
- 6:41Speaker 3: how we how we travel the flight over here, I
- 6:43Speaker 3: mean everything's been awesome and so makes it very easy
- 6:47Speaker 3: to come over here and play two games. And so
- 6:50Speaker 3: so part of that is is just staying in the
- 6:52Speaker 3: routine of hey, this is Monday and this is Tuesday.
- 6:54Speaker 3: Because sometimes you can get lost here you go to
- 6:56Speaker 3: a new place, and but if you keep everything the same,
- 6:58Speaker 3: then the guys know the routine and and there's not
- 7:00Speaker 3: much a lot of change, and so you just stay
- 7:02Speaker 3: you know, fundamentals, technique or defense things.
- 7:05Speaker 1: It doesn't matter where we're at.
- 7:06Speaker 3: Uh by that. By the way, the atmosphere was unbelievable
- 7:10Speaker 3: the other day. I like Tattenham was fantastic, been to
- 7:12Speaker 3: win wimingly before the awesome place, and so really excited
- 7:16Speaker 3: about the game on Sundays. The atmosphere and the energy
- 7:19Speaker 3: and the stadium and when they sing those national anthems,
- 7:22Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's live in there now, it's it's
- 7:25Speaker 3: it's awesome.
- 7:25Speaker 1: So really excited. Are you are you?
- 7:30Speaker 2: Are you getting enough up front or do you feel
- 7:32Speaker 2: like at some point you're going to have to dial
- 7:35Speaker 2: some more stuff up?
- 7:36Speaker 1: What's that balance from your always want more?
- 7:38Speaker 3: Right, you want you want more interceptions, you want more takeaway,
- 7:41Speaker 3: you want more punch outs, tackles. I mean at every
- 7:43Speaker 3: position you always want more. So uh maybe maybe not
- 7:46Speaker 3: Like I think the guy has done a good job.
- 7:49Speaker 3: Josh and Trayvon. You know, last couple of games been
- 7:51Speaker 3: rolling now, like the pressure in the quarterback and they've
- 7:54Speaker 3: been doing some really good things in eric inside and
- 7:56Speaker 3: you know some of those young defense ave limb have
- 7:58Speaker 3: been showing up.
- 7:58Speaker 1: So we'll just stay the core and maybe a little bit.
- 8:00Speaker 1: Well we always have.
- 8:01Speaker 3: A different wrinkle, you know, there's a wrinkle third down typically,
- 8:04Speaker 3: but some of the same.
- 8:09Speaker 1: But not getting it or when do you turn that switch?
- 8:12Speaker 1: Or but I want to be who we are.
- 8:13Speaker 3: Well, if we pressure too much, then they get a
- 8:16Speaker 3: tendency and a tip and then if you don't pressure,
- 8:18Speaker 3: and it's like man in zone coverage.
- 8:19Speaker 1: You know, you just got to keep mixing it. And
- 8:21Speaker 1: so we'll do the same thing. Awesome. I appreciate you guys,